At a White House ceremony last week marking the first day of Chanukah, President Bush was compared to the Maccabees for his leadership in acting against Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. “Your actions in the Persian Gulf, opposing wicked aggression and shameless threats of a modern-day Antiochus, is in the true Maccabean spirit,” said Rabbi… More ▸
Only 24 hours before he was to celebrate his long-delayed Bar Mitzvah, oil magnate Armand Hammer died Monday night at his Los Angeles home, following a short illness. He was 92. What was to be a tribute to the billionaire industrialist Tuesday night in Los Angeles turned into a memorial to a man who served… More ▸
In a major policy change, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry has announced it will ask President Bush to consider a one-year waiver of trade sanctions against the Soviet Union imposed by the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the U.S. Trade Act of 1974. The National Conference “now believes that the president should consider waiving the provisions… More ▸
President Bush’s indication that he is considering waiving Jackson-Vanik Amendment trade sanctions against the Soviet Union before it enacts promised legislation reforming emigration policy has caught Soviet Jewry advocacy groups by surprise. The Union of Councils for Soviet Jews announced its opposition to the idea minutes after President Bush mentioned the possibility Friday during a… More ▸
An office to monitor Soviet emigration and human rights practices has been opened in Moscow, the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews has announced. The Moscow Bureau on Exit, Human Rights and Rule of Law in the USSR was opened Monday as a joint venture of the Union of Councils and the Moscow-based Public Committee… More ▸
While the Persian Gulf crisis will likely dominate discussions Sunday between President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the issue of Soviet Jewry will not be forgotten during the one-day summit meeting in Helsinki, Finland. “We expect our concerns to be raised at some point during their talks,” said Mark Levin, associate executive director of… More ▸
Longtime refuseniks whose names have graced the pages of Jewish newspapers and been the subject of State Department talks with Soviet officials are seeing major changes in their lives as glasnost and perestroika continue to alter the face of Soviet Jewry. Irina Voronkevich, a 78-year-old retired biologist refused permission to emigrate since March 1981 because… More ▸
The number of Jews emigrating from the Soviet Union continued to soar to new heights during the month of July, with a record 15,553 leaving the country. The rate was a significant increase over June, when 11,197 Jews emigrated. Of the July number, 15,283 went to Israel and 270 to the United States, according to… More ▸
Israel’s small left-wing political community is stirred up over whether to support soldiers who refuse to do their required military service in the administered territories. The Citizens Rights Movement has split sharply over the issue — while it opposes the Israeli presence in the territories, its leadership draws the line in principle against the refusal… More ▸
American Jewish leaders have expressed satisfaction with President Bush’s pledge that he will not ask Congress to ratify a trade agreement he signed Friday with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev until Moscow adopts promised emigration reform legislation. But Jewish leaders were alarmed by Gorbachev’s threat Sunday to cut off Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union unless… More ▸
